The Seneca Has Landed 2/8/03

Wednesday of this week was a very important day for us here at Arctic Barnabas Ministry. The Seneca III plane that we were able to purchase thanks to the gifts of many supporters along with a grant, has come "home." It landed at Kenai Airport at a just about 5:30 pm, flown back to Alaska from Boise, Idaho by Joel and a close friend of the ministry, Dave

What does this mean? Well, it means that for the first time in our 2.5 years as a ministry, we now have our own plane! Everything the Lord has allowed us to do up to this point has been with leased planes. It also means that we will be able to get through in weather conditions that would have turned us back in both the Cessna 206 and the Cessna 310 we had been using. This plane has all the de-icing features that pilots drool over . It's a nice compromise between a larger twin-engine plane that is designed for doing full scale charter service (and thus very expensive to fly) and a smaller, single-engine plane that just cant fly some places because of the fact that it only has one engine! In a twin, fully loaded, one engine could quit and the plane can fly and land normally. So the safety factor is quite reassuring. It seats six. But the weight limitations mean we will probably never travel with more than 5 and full gear. (There are modifications that can be made to the plane that will help us carry more - - but we still have to deal with the amount of space available).

You can see pictures of the plane on our website at http://www.arcticbarnabas.org and then go to the Prayer & Praise page.

Please pray for our daughter Cassie this next week. She will be traveling to Iliamna and Pedro Bay to help ABM with two concerts that we have "booked" for Dave Beegle. Dave and his wife Sandy come to us from Colorado. They were with us at our Ministry Family Retreat last fall. Dave will be providing our music at the Love and Caring In Action Fundraiser ABM Fundraiser in Soldotna on Feb 14th. He will also be doing a "Coffee House Concert" at our church on February 15th. Dave is a wonderful guitarist and loves to honor the Lord with his incredible guitar skill. It's going to be a busy week!

Cassie has friends that she met from these villages while she was in training for Child Evangelism this last summer. She will helping with the concerts and renewing some friendship with some kids in the village.

Kris and I will be in Anchorage at various times in the next two weeks, trying to spend time with some of our friends from various villages who are coming in to Anchorage for some medical reasons, as well as to participate in the Native Musicale that takes place there every year.
I will be traveling to the village of Koyuk in early March to participate in a conference being held by some churches in the YK Delta and Norton Sound area of the state. Kris is busy organizing another Village Tea that she will be doing in two villages in late March to areas that we simply could not get to without our Seneca! (On anything other than a perfect day of flying ). More details on this as things get organized.

I have been busy in the office over the last month or so, and I am looking forward to getting out more in the next few months. We all do what we have to do to keep the ministry rolling, but our hearts are with the people we serve. I am also continuing to work on revising our policy manual.
Of course, we would love to be out in the villages as often as we can go. But we are always limited by funds. Part of the reason it's so difficult to do what we do is because it's so expensive! As God gives us opportunity, pray that the money needed to make things happen will be there.
Please also continue praying for our own personal support. It's frustrating at times - - - but part of the frustration is probably just me trying to make it all happen. You think I would learn, huh?

Gary